Counting the Stars
by Bura-sama
Summary: An AU, sorta, between my favorite couple. I can't really summarize. Takes place while Trunks, Pan, and Goku are out in space. Written in changing first person POVs.
1. Default Chapter Title

Counting the Stars  
by: Pro-Pan (Not to be confused with PROPANE)  
  
Part I  
Prologue  
"What are you doing out here?" I mentally slapped myself as I said those words.  
She turned around and looked at me strangely. As I started blushing, she smiled and those beautiful blue eyes of hers shone with warmth. "Just looking at the stars." I started to turn away, but those beautiful eyes of hers called me back. "Care to join me?"  
I smiled, tried to stop my insane blushing, and sat down beside her. She looked at me again, smiled once more, and fell backwards to the cool night grass behind her. I heard her soft giggling and turned to look at her. "What is it?"  
"Oh, nothing." She reached for my arm and pulled me down beside her. "I was just thinking."  
"What about?" I asked as I felt her warm body touch mine. Electricity. She didn't say anything, and my eyes were locked on the twinkling stars up above. "What are you thinking about?" I looked over to see her eyes shut and her breathing deep. I pulled myself away from her and reached for the blanket.  
"Goten?"  
"Hmm...?" I asked as I pulled the blanket snugly around her shoulders. She shook it off and sat up.  
"Do you think they're all right out there?"  
I smiled and brushed away a strand of her magnificent blue hair. "My father, my best friend, and my niece?" She looked me in the eyes and waited for my answer. "They are fine. Believe me, Bra. Those are three people that can take care of themselves."  
She smiled and looked back to the stars. "You wanted to go, too."  
*No. Then I couldn't be with you.* I remained silent as the stars above grew dimmer. My gaze found the distant eastern horizon, and locked on to the growing amount of sunlight. "Why do you ask?"  
She laughed and shook her head sadly. "I was just a little worried, I guess." She pushed herself to her feet and looked over to the rising sun. "Goten, do you ever have crazy dreams?"  
I bit my lip from telling her about my chronic nightmares. That wouldn't help her. "What kind of crazy dreams?"  
She laughed breathlessly, then tried to shrug it off. "Oh, not really crazy. Just about the weirdest things - " She brought her hand over her eyes to shield them from the sunlight. "Look, Goten! A shooting star! Let's make a wish!" I allowed her to pull me to my feet, and pulled her close.  
"What do we wish for?" I asked, savoring the feel of her heartbeat against my chest.  
"Anything in the world," she said and rested her head against my shoulder.  
*I wish you loved me...*  
  
Chapter One  
"Goten-chan!" I yelled as I saw his familiar face. He stopped walking, grinned and literally swept me off my feet. I laughed and giggled, and wrapped my hands around his neck. He swung me around until my world started to become dizzy, and he picked me up and started flying.  
"Goten," I whispered, pressing my mouth against his ear. "Set me down now."  
He did so and I gave him the deepest kiss I could. "I couldn't stand being away from you," he whispered and started pressing warm kisses against my neck.  
"It was only three hours," I managed to get out between my laughter.  
"Hey!" someone shouted. I looked up and saw it was one of my friends from school. "Get a hotel room!" she continued and I blushed like mad. Goten stopped and looked at my friend with a huge grin on his face.  
"If you pay!" he shouted back and I smacked his arm. We walked off, hand in hand.  
  
********  
  
I really shouldn't have been bringing the subject up in front of Goten's brother. Gohan was always really sensitive to the subject. But Videl asked me, and I felt I should answer.  
"Twenty." I said and instantly regretted it. No one needed to be reminded that Pan would have been that old a few days ago. I wished I knew where she was. They never came back. My brother, one of my best friends, and Goku-san. They went out into space to save Earth, and they never came back. It had taken a few years for the facts to finally settle into everyone's hearts. They would never come back. Earth hadn't been destroyed, but they weren't coming back. "Twenty," I repeated the number again before getting up and leaving the Son household.  
"I'm sorry," I sobbed to the shadow behind me. "I shouldn't have brought it up."  
Goten had followed me out and took my wrist. "You don't have to be sorry," He pulled me into a big hug and took both of my hands in his. "No matter what you say, it won't be any different." He pointed back to the house. "Gohan is never going to get over it. The loss of his father, his daughter. That's not something you can just get over."  
"I know that." I sobbed out between breaths. His warm breath on my neck soothed my nerves and stopped the tears from falling. "I know. It's just that sometimes I have to just reassure myself that you're still with me. That you didn't go off with Trunks and die. I wake up sometimes and start crying, thinking you've left me."  
He pulled me closer, kissed me lightly, and looked me in the eyes. "I will never leave you."  
  
********  
  
I woke up at around three in the morning. The wind was blowing in from the open window, and I went to close it. I looked back at my wife, still in our bed, shivering slightly. The window slid shut, and I went back to our bed. I shook her arm slightly, and her beautifully blue eyes opened and found mine. "Dreamin' of me, Bra?" I teased and she smiled.  
"Of course," she whispered and started running her fingers through my hair.   
"Are you coming with me to see my mother today?" I asked as sleep started to pull me away from her.  
"Hmm..." her voice was teasing and sincere at the same time. "Let's see. Constant questions about expecting grandkids, trying to get me to cook with her and Videl, more talk about grandchildren." She grinned and fingered her wedding band. "I wouldn't miss it."  
I smiled, but my eyes grew wider as I felt the approach of an average-powered ki. Bra seemed to sense it somehow, and climbed out of the bed. "I'll go see who it is." I reached for her wrist, but she wriggled out of my grasp and slipped into her bathrobe.  
"Wait," I said and followed her down the stairs.  
  
********  
  
*No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,* I thought over and over again as I recognized both kis. There's a logical reason. There has to be. Both of them grew closer and I heard incoherent noises from behind the door. This was Capsule Corp. He shouldn't have been there. I looked back and forth between my two traveling companions. They felt it, too.  
The door swung open. My mouth dropped. There she was: my sister in all her glory. Extremely short bathrobe draped over her shoulders and nothing else. Goten appeared behind her. A sweaty tanktop and boxers. The wedding bands glimmered in my sight. I swung my fist back and punched. He went flying across the floor.  
*No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.*  
  
  
  



	2. Default Chapter Title

Counting the Stars  
by: Bura-sama  
  
Part II  
Chapter II  
I couldn't believe it. There was Trunks, my best friend, no - my brother-in-law, standing at my door, about to punch me again. Next to him was my father, now a teenager, and my niece, whom I barely recognized. I pushed myself to my feet and stepped closer to Bra.  
"You're dead," I said with mixed emotions.  
Trunks' look of anger fell, and was replaced with melancholy.  
"You thought we were dead?" Pan asked. I barely recognized her voice, so soft and mature.  
Bra came up beside me, and rested her hand on my shoulder. She nodded solemnly in response to Pan's question, and went forward to embrace her brother.  
I didn't know what to say or do. I thought I would never see them again, and here they were.  
  
****  
  
I didn't care that I was crying. They thought that I was dead. Wouldn't they know? I always thought that they would know when I died. I always thought I would know when they died. The tears were rolling from my eyes by the time I stepped in the house. My uncle was standing there, not knowing what to do. I didn't know what I was supposed to do, either. Bra came up to me and hugged me, tears falling from her eyes as well.  
It didn't seem worth it. We had been gone out in space all those years, trying desperately to save Earth, and I'd lost my childhood. And for what? We failed in our mission, but Earth hadn't been destroyed. We were lost, trapped out in that black void for ten years, and everyone had carried on their lives the same. Of all the possible things I had been expecting on her return to Earth, this hadn't been one of them.  
I looked over to my grandpa, who looked exactly Goten had in those old family albums I'd cared so little about when I was a little girl. He was staring blankly ahead. Maybe he was looking at how much Goten had changed. I don't know. At that moment, the thing I wanted most in the whole universe was to see my mom and dad. I looked back at Grandpa, and finally noticed what he was staring at. That necklace around Bra's throat. It was my grandmother's.  
  
****  
  
I didn't know why they were all staring at me like that. Well, I didn't at first. It took a few moments for me to figure out they were wondering about my necklace. The one ChiChi-san had given me on her sickbed. I didn't want to talk about that, though. Those days were the saddest moments I ever had. ChiChi lying there on her deathbed, struggling just to breath. It was about the time that it had finally settled in on us that they weren't coming back. She had given me her locket, the one that Goku-san had given her, and made me promise to always treasure it. The doctors didn't think she was going to live. They had her time left on Earth down to hours. But, surprisingly, she pulled through until she was her normal self, sans some of the joy. After we knew she was going to make it, I tried to return to her the necklace, but she insisted I keep it, and so here it was. A heart shaped locket with a picture of the Son family in one side and everyone else on the other.  
Pan was staring at the necklace like it was the Hope Diamond. I wrapped my fingers around it, and stepped closer to Goten.  
"What happened?" Pan asked slowly. She jumped forward and ripped the locket from my neck. "Where is my grandmother?!" I stepped back and stuttered, never expecting Pan to react like that. She looked at me hysterically and held the locket in the air. "What happened to my Grandma!"  
"Nothing," I blurted, trying to calm her down.  
"Stop lying!" Pan tried to throw me against the wall, but Goten pulled her away. "Where is she?! She never took this locket off! NEVER!"  
"Calm down, Pan!" Goten and Trunks yelled together. Pan stopped screaming and waited for Goten to continue, her whole body shaking as she sobbed. "Your grandma's fine, Pan." Pan started to say something, but Goten shook his head. "She moved in with Gohan just last year. I talked to her this morning, and in fact, Bra and I were just talking about going to see her later today."  
Pan stopped and let go of the necklace. It fell to the floor where Goten picked it up. "I'm sorry, it's just that - "  
"What's going on in here?"  
  
****  
  
I stopped and stared. He was back. My son was home at last. "Trunks," I said, the words not more than a whisper. He smiled slightly and threw his arms around me. I knew it. I always knew that he hadn't left me. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I held him at arm's length and made sure that my baby was okay.  
As I hugged him again, my gaze fell on Goku. The carbon-copy of a teen-aged Goten smiled that Son grin and winked. "Son-kun," I breathed and started laughing and crying at the same time. I looked back at the door where Vegeta was watching with a smile, much more preferable than that usual smirk of his. Then I saw Pan. Tears streaked her face, and she was wearing some sort of battle armor. I hugged her tightly and was grateful beyond no limits that my family was together again.  
  
****  
  
I woke up from the saddest dream I had had in a long time. I dreamed that Pan had come back to Earth, and she was laughing and living with us again. It filled me with the brightest joy, then I would wake up and discover it was all a horrible dream that always left me with an empty, hollow ache inside.  
I looked over to my husband and found him with his eyes wide and staring at something. I shook his shoulder, and he turned to look at me. "Gohan?" I asked.  
He sat up in bed and kissed me fiercely. It was something he always did when he knew something I didn't.  
"Gohan." I repeated again. This time my tone was firmer.  
He smiled, his eyes starting to tear up, and kissed me again. "Videl,"  
There was a loud knock on the door. The tears started to fall from his eyes. "She's home." He rolled out of bed and took my hand. "Our daughter's back,"  
  
****  
  
I almost couldn't believe it. The house I had lived in for so long. Abandoned, boarded up, forgotten. I felt an instant pang of guilt for leaving ChiChi all alone, but now wasn't the time to feel that.  
I felt my son's ki first. Then I identified the others'. The door flew open, and there they were. My family. ChiChi started sobbing when she saw us standing there. Me and Pan, looking like a pair of drowned rats standing in the rain. I didn't even remember when the rain started, but we were thoroughly soaked.  
I threw my arms around them. My son, my granddaughter, her mother, and my wife. They were my family, and I was home again.  
  
**************************************  
  
Well, I probably should have mentioned this in the last part, but I thought people could figure it out. This story not only jumps from speaker, but also time. Bra did not marry Goten when she was twenty. She was twenty-five. And no, this is not the end. I don't know how much longer I'm going to write on this, but just so you know, I'm going to keep one time per chapter. The first was way too confusing, but think of it like this chapter. No more jumping through the years.  
  



End file.
